


Parallel

by forgotten_silence



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-01 06:51:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12151041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forgotten_silence/pseuds/forgotten_silence
Summary: Kaneki wasn’t taken in by Anteiku. [AU] where Kaneki makes a name for himself by hunting ghouls for a living. [Touken]





	Parallel

She has had up to this much with Kamishiro Rize-san when she vanishes off the face of earth( or more likely got bored with the 20th ward and moved on to terrorize another ward). Finally, she thinks, they can breathe, but nothing is ever that easy. Rize brought on the doves, and even though the killings have stopped, the doves remain, searching for the binge-eater who has disappeared off the grid.

Then there is something else entirely.

  
Like the phoenix rises from the ashes, another ghoul takes her place barely months after she disappears. This one though, is far more dangerous than Rize ever was. Rize killed humans. This one kills ghouls. Murders them and eats them in droves. If Rize was the binge-eater, this one is gluttony personified (her only relief is that he doesn't stick exclusively to their ward).

  
They call him the Centipede, the Doves do, because he has the slithering form of a centipede that wraps around his body(or so she has gathered from her sources). The only people who have come face to face with Centipede and survived are humans. Ghouls don't live to tell the tale.

The customers of Anteiku increase exponentially. They have to sneak into hospitals and dig up graves for dead bodies because most of the ghouls in the 20th ward have decided that it is safer to buy food from them than hunt for themselves.

It chills her that a ghoul can create so much fear amongst ghouls. Maybe the Centipede is something created by the CCG to spread panic amongst her people. Maybe it's the result of years and years of scientific experimenting; their ultimate weapon, a ghoul they can bend to their will.

The Centipede stories are spreading throughout Tokyo when it happens.

“Ryoko-san was killed,” is what manager tells her, his voice quiet. Hinami is curled up on the sofa next to Irimi, and even though she is asleep, her body wrecks with sobs.

For a moment, Touka swears she can hear ringing in her ears.  _What? When?How-_  and then, she punches the wall, her fist leaving cracks on the cement.  
“We are going to kill the doves,” she says. “Aren't we?”

“No. We aren't," it is Yomo who answers. And then they speak, telling her exactly why they shouldn't kill the doves, but she hears none of it. All she feels is the betrayal, that her friends, the only family she and Hinami have left, would ignore the injustice that has been committed against them.

“THEN  _I_ WILL!” she slams the door as loudly as she can, and then she is running, angry tears gathering at the corner of her eyes.

The next morning, when she walks into Anteiku with a slight limp in her step, it is ignored. When her wound reopens and it starts bleeding through her shirt, Yoshimura sends her to the back to do the dirty dishes. She can barely stand, and when she moves her arm to scrub the coffee stains off the mugs, she can feel the wound opening up even more. Later that afternoon, when she comes across the newspaper with the photo of the dead investigator, she doesn't feel as happy as she thought she would.

 _I need more of them to die,_ she thinks sourly, flipping through the angry scribbles on Hinami’s journal.

For the next two weeks, she is consumed by the need to find justice. She sneaks up to the CCG office, she gives them wrong information about Hinami's whereabouts, she scouts through web pages, searching for Investigators, and finally, one night she has her chance.

But even the best-laid plans have a tendency to fail, and so does hers. Instead of taking her bait, the investigator lures out Hinami, and it is both of them that walks into the trap. In the end, though, she does manage to kill the investigator, only to discover that he is married.

Who is the real monster? The man who killed a child's mother or the girl who killed a woman's husband and possibly someone's father?

There is none of the satisfaction she thought she would feel, but a strange sort of emptiness in her heart that reminds her that she is as much a monster as the man she killed.

With Centipede's activity decreasing in the 20th ward comes the decrease in demand for human meat from Anteiku, and for a while, everything returns to normal, apart from the fact that in addition to the Binge Eater, CCG is now also hunting the Rabbit.

By the time Autumn draws to a close, she is failing in class, a wanted criminal, and a disappointment(he doesn't say it, but she knows Yoshimura is disappointed in her). But she must try to at least remedy something so whenever they have a day with few customers, she tries to make sense of her school work.  
That day, she is buried in her Classical Literature textbook(or trying to concentrate because the salt-shaker is more interesting than the questions on the text). “Are you studying Literature?” is what makes her look up.

It is what of those hippie kids that are hanging around the neighbourhood these days trying to be cooler than an ice-cube, but this one looks like he quit after a dye job gone bad. A shock of messy white hair frames a pale face, and the grey eyes that stare at her are ringed with dark circles.  
  


“Yeah. I have exams next week,” she says, giving him a slight smile. “What can I get you?”

“Need help? I'm good with Litrature,” he smiles. Bracing a hand on the counter-top, he leans forward until he is looking at her book. “That question is wrong. When Francisco and Bernardo meet , they are in Denmark, not Dutchland, and you have to explain why Hamlet was driven to kill the king. Simply stating he went mad doesn't count.”  
  


She looks up at him in surprise. So he really did know his stuff.  
  


He tilts his head to a side and grins, cracking his fingers. “Also, I'll want an Americano.”  
  


“And do you know why he was driven to kill the king?” she asks, because she is tired of trying to read the stupid book(and several others) and if she can get an answer by making small talk while preparing coffee, she is all open to that (its a bit embarrassing to think that she is that desperate but the assignment is due tomorrow and she doesn't have the time to read all the books or even try to understand them). As she filters the coffee and fills it with hot water, the strange boy tells her exactly why, and moves on to the next question, explaining why the book is named Much ado about nothing and why it is relevant to the story.

When she puts his mug on the counter, she expects him to take it and retreat to a table. Instead, he stays by the counter and continues rattling off the answers to her assignment one by one. She is about to protest, but then decides, pride be damned, she needs help and this is a stranger who she (hopefully) won't run into again, so she listens and takes notes.

  
“So the Rabbit huh? Killing all those investigators..” he says it so suddenly and out of nowhere that her pencil skids on her notebook and she looks up.

  
“What?”

“The Rabbit. Must be a scary ghoul,” he taps his nails on the counter again, that strange smile fixed on his face. For the first time, she notices that the black of his nails look too sickly to be nail polish.

“Yeah. It's scary, all those ghouls on the news,” she says, nodding her head, a little unnerved by his sudden change in topic. “This area is pretty safe though.”  
“That's good then,” he leans forward to survey her work. “I wouldn't want you to feel unsafe... um?”

“Kirishima Touka,” she says after a beat.

“Kaneki,” he offers, and then, “its a pleasure to meet you, Touka-chan. The coffee was excellent.” He sets his now empty cup back on the counter and presses his palms against the counter. “I have to go now. But I'll see you again, Touka-chan.” He gives her a smile and a wave, and before she can remind him that she still has three more questions to go, he heads to the door.  
She can't quite put her finger on it, but there is something very odd about his abrupt departure. Like he'd been searching for something, and had left the moment he had found it.

Did he, by any chance, know who she was?No, that can't be, right?

_Right?_

She doesn't have to wait long to find out.

She is somewhere between home and Anteiku when he appears, stepping out of the shadows like a ghost.

“The Rabbit, huh?” there is a wicked sort of smile on his lips and he flexes his fingers against each other. She watches in shock as one of his eyes bleed red and black. His Kagune flares up behind him, red tentacles zooming towards her. “It did take some work finding you, but I did. Finally.” He laughs, the sound echoing off the walls of the alley they are in.

_A half-ghoul? A-_

She leaps back, her own Kagune spreading behind her. The bag she is holding is thrown forward by the momentum of the movement and its contents scatter on the ground; a bar of soap, several books, candles, but she doesn't have time to pay attention to it as she dodges another attack from the boy.

“So, how do you want to die, Rabbit?” he walks toward her calmly, the smile still fixed on his face. “Head cut in half like that investigator you killed? Arm and legs dismembered like the other one?”

_What? What was he talking about? How did he know all that? Who-_

Then it hits her, the realization making her cold with dread.

“Centipede,” she says. “You're Centipede.”

“Yes,” the boy says, laughing. The sound of his voice chills her. “So, would you like a centipede in your ear, Touka-chan?”


End file.
